Apple's CEO Steve Jobs held a press conference today about the iPhone 4 and what Steve referred to as "Antenna-gate". The short story is that you can get a free Bumper or other case sent to you if you purchased an iPhone 4. That offer ends Sept. 30th, and we have no idea if that means they think they'll have a fix (something like a coating over the antenna), or if that's the largest hit to profit margins they're willing to take. If you already bought a Bumper case, you'll receive a refund.

Late next week you'll be able to request a case online. No need to go to an Apple store.

If you purchased an iPhone 4 and aren't happy with it, you can return it within 30 days of purchase for a full refund (no re-stocking fee).

Jobs presented a series of observations and comments before announcing the free case. These include:

- All smartphones drop bars if you hold them a certain way (he singled out the Droid Eris, BlackBerry 9700 and Samsung Omnia II in his demo).

- He claims that only 0.55% of iPhone 4 buyers have contacted Apple about the death grip.

- Return rates are at 1.7% vs. the iPhone 3GS' 6.0%. Of course, there are virtually no iPhone 4 smartphones in stock, so returning for an exchange isn't easy (we tried 2x and had no luck).

- Apple cares, even if only a supposed small percentage are having reception issues with the iPhone 4.

- Yesterday's iOS 4.0.1 update changed the bar display and also fixed an Exchange sync bug that had been hammering Exchange servers. The proximity sensor issue will be addressed in the next iOS update.

- Apple can't make enough Bumper cases for everyone, so they'll offer some other cases as well.

I didn't know you tried to exchange your iPhone 4... was it because of the reception issues?

I don't have an iPhone 4, but since installing iOS 4.0.1 on my 3GS, it's been a case of "Dude, where's my bars?" It used to show 4-5 bars all the time, but now it's more like 1-3. I know it's not an actual change in signal strength but somehow it doesn't really seem like a good thing. iOS 3.2.1 for iPad apparently still uses the "wrong" formula.

Steve Jobs mentioned himself that once people know about your new product, they stop buying your old product. I can't help but wonder if he already knows that an "iPhone 4.1" is coming out in September.

We tried to return it due to poor call quality, particularly when in areas with 3 bars or less.

After installing iOS4 on my 3GS, the number of bars indeed did drop, but I was expecting that (Apple did warn us). And we all knew the bars were inflated previously as part of the iPhone 3G weak reception/dropped calls/make you feel better if you see more bars fix.

The iPhone 4 doesn't show radically fewer bars though, making it look superior to the 3GS in terms of reception now that both are running 4.0.1.